I. Field of the Invention
The embodiments disclosed in this application generally relate to Internet advertising and more specifically to Internet advertising and techniques for allowing multiple Internet advertising units rendered on the same webpage to communicate and interact.
2. Background of the Invention
With the proliferation of advertising on the Internet and the resulting marketing overload experienced by many Internet users, it is becoming increasingly important for Internet ad units to differentiate themselves from “rest of the crowd.” Rich-media ads are becoming the norm as they can deliver content that is animated, makes sounds, interacts with users, etc. Correspondingly, Internet marketing schemes have become more elaborate and sophisticated, sometimes involving multiple ad units being delivered for simultaneous viewing by a user.
Most Internet advertising units are self-contained entities on the webpage that they're rendered on. When multiple (2 or more) ad units are rendered on the same webpage, the units can be made to behave like they are interacting with each other by playing pre-scripted timed animation or by hard coding the ad units such that they require web publishers to serve them together on the same webpage at the same time to ensure proper functionality. This level of programming or pre-scheduling by the web publisher significantly limits their flexibility in creating complex advertising schemes that utilize multiple ad units that are non-synchronously rendered on a webpage.